【双语阅读】大模型“六小虎”登场，谁能在AI 2.0时代胜出？（上）

CaixinGlobal财新国际 · 公众号 · · 2025-01-06 18:04

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Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT ignited a global frenzy for generative artificial intelligence in late 2022, China’s tech sector has been swept up in a stampede of investment focused on computational power and cutting-edge models. While a few dominant players have emerged, the road ahead for the industry remains fraught with challenges.

2024年是生成式人工智能（AI）飞速发展的一年。时至年末，经过一年多战算力、战模型、战融资的“百模大战”，中国六家估值超过10亿美元的“独角兽”AI创业公司，被市场视为“大模型六小虎”头部阵营，暂时稳住阵脚。

这“六小虎”分别为：智谱AI、MiniMax、百川智能、月之暗面、阶跃星辰、零一万物，前四家当前估值已过200亿元。

Five-year-old Zhipu AI, one of China’s earliest generative AI start-ups, is now valued at over 20 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) and backed by a diverse range of investors. Incubated by Tsinghua University, Zhipu AI debuted China’s first self-developed pre-trained large language model (LLM) in August 2022. The company, with nearly 1,000 employees, has 25 million users for its chatbot app, ChatGLM, and rakes in annual recurring revenue exceeding 10 million yuan. CEO Zhang Peng said Zhipu AI aims to become China’s version of OpenAI, with operations spanning both business and consumer sectors.

2019年6月成立的智谱AI，由清华大学孵化，创始团队中的首席执行官（CEO）张鹏、唐杰均来自清华大学计算机系，唐杰是该系副主任、教授。智谱AI也是“六小虎”中成立最早、迄今规模最大的公司，员工近千人。2022年8月，智谱成为国内第一家发布自研预训练语言大模型的创业公司。目前，“智谱清言”App拥有2500万用户，年化收入（ARR）超过千万元。张鹏此前向财新称，智谱AI希望成为中国的OpenAI，因此在企业级、消费级领域都有业务部署。

MiniMax, founded by veterans of AI technology developer SenseTime, launched the Chinese AI platform Glow in 2022, enabling users to create and interact with intelligent agents. The company also found success overseas with Talkie, which ranked fifth among the most-downloaded free entertainment apps in the U.S. in June. Caixin has learned that MiniMax now generates $70 million in annual recurring revenue from advertising and user subscriptions across three products — Talkie, Hailuo AI and Xingye AI.

2021年12月，在视觉AI“四小龙”公司商汤科技（ 00020.HK ）负责通用人工智能技术（AGI）的闫俊杰，离职创办MiniMax，2022年在国内推出了AI虚拟社交产品Glow，很快积累百万用户，后因牌照问题遭应用平台下架，直至2023年8月获得牌照后重推与Glow相似的产品“星野”，其海外版本Talkie凭借和名人的对话聊天“出圈”，连续数月成为美国下载排名前五的娱乐应用。MiniMax目前团队在400人左右。

闫俊杰向财新称，自2024年4月推出生产力工具海螺AI后，目前全球网页端月活跃用户（MAU）接近1000万。据财新了解，MiniMax目前整体估值达30亿美元左右，旗下Talkie、海螺AI和星野AI三款产品年化收入7000万美元，主要商业模式是广告和用户订阅。

Zhipu AI and MiniMax are among a half-dozen Chinese AI unicorns — startups valued at more than $1 billion — that are outpacing the rest of the field and capturing the attention of investors. Known as the Six AI Tigers, this group also includes rising stars Baichuan AI, Moonshot AI, Stepfun and 01.AI. Each was founded during the ChatGPT-driven surge in AI innovation.

Investors have rushed to pour billions of dollars into these companies, wagering on their innovative potential, model capabilities and product offerings. In recent interviews with Caixin, the founders expressed confidence that China’s AI large models have not only narrowed the gap with global leaders like OpenAI but have, in some areas, surpassed them.

“By 2025, large model applications are expected to experience widespread growth in both enterprise and consumer sectors,” Ru Liyun, founder of Baichuan AI, said.

Focusing on large models’ applications in industries such as healthcare, education and finance, Baichuan AI began its commercialization about six months ago and expects order contracts to reach between 1 billion yuan and 2 billion yuan this year, according to Ru. At the same time, the company plans to double its workforce to about 800 employees.

“六小虎”中的其余四家，均在OpenAI聊天机器人ChatGPT爆火后的新一轮大模型创业潮中成立。搜狗创始人王小川拉上曾任搜狗公司首席运营官（COO）的茹立云于2023年3月成立百川智能，成立半年估值就超10亿美元。百川目前主攻大模型在医疗、教育、金融等行业的落地应用。

百川智能联合创始人茹立云告诉财新，公司目前有400人左右，随着业务扩张，希望2025年人数能翻1倍。百川智能开始商业化已半年左右，预计2025年订单签约额在10亿—20亿元水平：“我们现在是忙不过来的状态，2025年无论是2B（企业级）还是2C（消费级），大模型应用都会全面爆发，只是2C还需解决变现、大厂竞争压力的问题。”

Stepfun founder and Microsoft veteran Jiang Daxin said he expects the first commercialized large model ecosystem to emerge in the next one to two years.

But these startups still face significant challenges, including U.S. restrictions on advanced chips, which limit China’s access to essential computational power. Chinese AI companies still trail international competitors in both computing resources and funding. While top Chinese startups typically rely on thousands of hardware units, such as GPUs or specialized chips, to power their AI models, leading U.S. companies like OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI are building computational clusters with 100,000 units.

在中国，大模型创业更加不易。一方面，AI算力、融资能力与OpenAI等国外同行相比，有一个数量级的差距。中国头部大模型创业公司仅有千卡的算力规模，想要使用万卡集群还需和算力中心合作，融资最多的中国大模型创业公司累计融资额不过100亿元左右，估值刚刚超过200亿元。算力中的“卡”，是对算力硬件设备的通称，若要训练万亿参数的大模型往往需要数千张英伟达GPU算力卡，或同等甚至更大规模的华为等国产厂商算力卡，训练数月时间。

【双语阅读】大模型“六小虎”登场，谁能在AI 2.0时代胜出？（上）

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